Articles
CREATING NEW APRICOT VARIETIES IN ROUMANIA
The consumption period of these apricot varieties lasts no longer than 30–35 days, and within the limits of this period there are time gaps long enough from one variety to the other.
That is why studies were organized to obtain long dormant, frost resistant varieties with a late blossoming period and big-sized fruits, intensively pigmented, and the ripening stage of which would be spaced out in a longer period.
The first experiments with mutual sexual hybridization of the De Silistra, Re Umberto, Luizet, Late of Bucharest and Best of Hungary varieties were carried out in 1949–1950. Following élites were selected: Pioner /Silistra x Re Umberto/, Bucharest 5 500 /Luizet x Re Umberto/, Centenarul Unirii /Luizet x Re Umberto/, Marculesti 19 /Luizet x Re Umberto/, Baragan 23, Dobrogea noua, ICHV 24 and others.
These élites are strongly frost resistant, they bloom later, bear fruits regularly and some of them yield fruits of finer and higher quality than other suitably distributed varieties or their parents.
In order to attain a continuous improvement, in 1958–1959, the best of those élites were crossed again; thus we obtained the second generation of the same families.
About 1 000 hybrid plants from them were studies in F2. Although these hybrids are at the second fructification, there appear very valuable ones among them.